Is it God or Just the Data that Moves in Mysterious Ways? How Well-Being Research may be Mistaking Faith for Virtue

Schuurmans-Stekhoven, James Benjamin

doi:10.1007/s11205-010-9630-7

Cited by 23 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…Considering the breadth of studies on character strengths in recent years, it is surprising how few have formally examined the VIA classification of character strengths and spirituality. A couple of exceptions are Schuurmans-Stekhoven (2011) and Berthold and Ruch (2014) , discussed later.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Decoding of the Human Spirit: A Synergy of Spirituality and Character Strengths Toward Wholeness

2020

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Little attention has been given to the integral relationship between character strengths and spirituality (the search for or communing with the sacred to derive meaning and purpose). The science of character strengths has surged in recent years with hundreds of studies, yet with minimal attention to spirituality or the literature thereof. At the same time, the science of spirituality has steadily unfolded over the last few decades and has offered only occasional attention to select strengths of character (e.g., humility, love, and forgiveness) or the universal typology of the VIA classification of character strengths and virtues. In this exploration, we argue that there is a robust synergy of these sciences and practices revealing that spirituality is vitally concerned with promoting character strengths. At the same time, character strengths can enhance and deepen spiritual practices, rituals, and experiences. We elaborate on how character strengths and spirituality come together in the context of the psycho-spiritual journey toward wholeness. By wholeness, we are referring to a way of being in the world that involves a life-affirming view of oneself and the world, a capacity to see and approach life with breadth and depth and the ability to organize the life journey into a cohesive whole. We further discuss six levels by which spirituality can be integrated within the VIA Classification, including a meta-perspective in which wholeness represents a meta-strength or superordinate virtue. We frame two pathways of integration: the grounding path, in which character strengths offer tangibility and thereby deepen and enhance spirituality, and the sanctification path, in which spirituality elevates character strengths. Finally, we turn to research-based practices and examine how character strengths might facilitate and contribute to spiritual practices and, conversely, how spirituality might enhance character strength practices. Such multifaceted integration offers insight and wisdom to both areas of study and opens up new directions for psycho-spiritual research and practices to deepen and broaden our understanding of what it means to be human.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Decoding of the Human Spirit: A Synergy of Spirituality and Character Strengths Toward Wholeness

2020

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“…The Character Strength Inventory (CSI: Issacowitz, Valliant, & Seligman, ) contains a seven‐item spirituality subscale which has previously been utilised in psychosocial research on spirituality (see Schuurmans‐Stekhoven, , , for criterion validation). The scale contains items such as ‘I believe that each person has a soul’, ‘I believe in a universal power, a god’, and ‘I believe there is a spirit that survives after the death of the body that can communicate with persons still living’ with a 5‐point Likert‐like response format.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…for the observed associations. In fact, Schuurmans‐Stekhoven () reports a reversal paradox in that although spirituality was initially a positive predictor of well‐being in correlation analysis, controlling for virtues (wisdom, hope, etc.) resulted in spirituality switching to become a significant negative predictor.…”

Section: Spirituality and Affectivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Is God's call more than audible? A preliminary exploration using a two‐dimensional model of theistic/spiritual beliefs and experiences

Schuurmans-Stekhoven

2013

Australian Journal of Psychology

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Among spiritual individuals, auditory hallucinations (AHs) are often accompanied by positive affectivity (PA) suggesting that such coincidental affective valence might gainfully demark spiritual from comparable non-spiritual aberrant perceptions. Yet nearly all of the relevant past religiosity/spirituality research has been limited to AHs and/or known groups (Evangelicals, epilepsy patients, etc.). Using a community sample (N = 485), this article explores whether unusual perceptual experiences (UEs) more generally (not simply AHs) together with PA predict participants' self-reported spirituality. Specifically, a dual marker hypothesis developed from affect attribution theory-in which UE, PA, and their interaction predict spirituality in a non-additive positive fashion-is proposed and confirmed (even after controlling for socio-demographics). The estimators reveal that spirituality is disproportionately elevated for high scorers on both predictors. These results are consistent with previous known-group studies and support recent speculation that the affective-cognitive interpretation of perceptual aberrations might be a key feature of spirituality and one that potentially demarks it from psychosis. Moreover, the correlation between spirituality and PA varies depending upon one's UE level; a result not anticipated by the incumbent positive psychological theory of spirituality.

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“…This research has important theoretical implications because so much of the research on the impact that religion has on one's emotional state has to do with happiness or well being (Childs 2010;Edling, Rydgren and Boham 2014;Eichhorn 2011;Ellison et al 2001;Jung 2014;Mackie and Brinkerhoff 1986;Mochon, Norton, and Ariely 2011;Pargament et al 2011;Peacock and Poloma 1999;Poloma and Pendleton 1990;Stavrova, Fetchenhauer, and Schlösser 2013). Other studies lean in the opposite direction, focusing instead on the link between religion and depressive tendencies or distress (de Velde, der Bracht, and Buffel 2017;Ellison and Lee 2010;Ellison et al 2001;Jang and Johson 2004;Mackie and Brinkerhoff 1986;Mochon et al 2011;Pargament et al 2011;Salsman and Carlson 2005;Schuurmans-Stekhoven 2011). The plethora of research on this topic makes it clear that religion has an impact on people's emotions, but further research must be done to see how far the hand of religion reaches.…”

Section: Thank God? the Effect Of Religious Attitudes And Behaviors Omentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some research in this category finds that religiosity is linked to less psychological distress (de Velde, der Bracht, and Buffel 2017;Jang and Johson 2004;Salsman and Carlson 2005). Conversely, other research has found that depending on the type of belief and religious experiences, religion can have detrimental effects on general well being (de Velde et al 2017;Ellison and Lee 2010;Ellison et al 2001;Mackie and Brinkerhoff 1986;Mochon et al 2011;Pargament et al 2011;Schuurmans-Stekhoven 2011). It is clear from these seemingly contradictory findings that this topic is complex, and there are multiple factors influencing the emotional experiences of those studied.…”

Section: Distressmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thank God? The Effect of Religious Attitudes and Behaviors on Emotions

Sokoll-Ward¹

2018

Preprint

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What is the effect of one's religious attitudes and behaviors on the frequency of different emotions? I propose that a stronger religious affiliation and a higher frequency of attending religious services will lead to feeling happy and ashamed more often and feeling sad, anxious, and mad less often. Further, I propose that a higher frequency of prayer will lead to feeling sad, anxious, mad, and ashamed more often and feeling happy less often. I analyze the frequency of these emotions in 892 respondents to the 1996 General Social Survey, a nationally representative dataset obtained via face to face interviews. Regression analysis revealed that more frequent prayer leads to feeling sad and ashamed more often, and more frequent religious service attendance leads to feeling anxious less often. Demographic control variables are also found to have an effect on how frequently one feels sad, mad, and anxious. The results offer partial support for the hypotheses. Further research is necessary to reconcile these differences and to explain the mechanisms by which the relationship between religiosity and emotions operates.

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Is it God or Just the Data that Moves in Mysterious Ways? How Well-Being Research may be Mistaking Faith for Virtue

Abstract: Spirituality, Religiosity, Well-being, Virtues, Character strengths,

Cited by 23 publications

References 61 publications

The Decoding of the Human Spirit: A Synergy of Spirituality and Character Strengths Toward Wholeness

The Decoding of the Human Spirit: A Synergy of Spirituality and Character Strengths Toward Wholeness

Is God's call more than audible? A preliminary exploration using a two‐dimensional model of theistic/spiritual beliefs and experiences

Thank God? The Effect of Religious Attitudes and Behaviors on Emotions

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